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Regular exercise can reduce the risk of severe outcomes for COVID-19, says study

Elise Solé

People who exercise regularly have a better chance of surviving COVID-19 compared to those who move less, according to a new study.

The April 7 research, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that COVID-19 patients who regularly exercise, compared to people who are consistently inactive, have a lower chance of being hospitalized, requiring ICU care and dying from the coronavirus.

Doctors at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, who led the study, included 48,440 subjects who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between January 2020 and October 2020 and asked them how often they’d exercised over the previous two years. They measured answers by the Exercise Vital Sign, a standard that identifies whether people are meeting the government’s Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. The most recent version, updated in 2018, recommends that on a weekly basis, adults do 150 minutes to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise, with additional guidelines for strength training. #lovemyjob